Cable Company Employee And Registered Sex Offender Charged For Allegedly Touching A 13-Year-Old

Thomas Jefferson, 43, was part of a crew subcontracted by Verizon installing cable in a subdivision in Glen Allen, VA, when police say he went to a house where a 13 year old girl was home alone and asked for a drink of water. NBC12 says that after he asked for the water he “touched the girl in her private areas.”

“We hope that parents will talk with their kids and remind them to never let a stranger in your house,” says Henrico Police Lt. Doug Perry. “Either act like you’re not there or say your mom and dad are in the bathroom or whatever, to make them think that a parent is present.”

Jefferson is a registered sex offender who was convicted of rape 1984.

Please remember to always ask for ID and never let strangers into your home when you are alone. Even if they really work for the cable company.

UPDATE: This guy works for Double J Communications, which was working for a subcontractor to S&N Communications, which in turn was working on contract with Verizon. Verizon has asked S&N to terminate the contract with Double J.

This is so disgusting. I will absolutely never use Comcast in my life. Totally inconsiderate of their customers, and this is on a whole new level. I thought that the kitten thing was appalling, but this is someone who they had access to background information of. It is irresponsible and ugh! I’m so sick.

@imaLttlGrl: You have to remember that Comcast didn’t hire this person. They hired a subcontractor to do their field work. It is the job of this subcontractor. And remember there aren’t many actual laws that prohibit the hiring of sex offenders.

@sir_pantsalot: Yeah, we should have left him in prison so we could pay for room and board for a convicted rapist, as well as entertainment, education, and all the man-love he could ever want. People like this should be the primary impetus for deportation.

Wow, just wow. Maybe the parents will bring a lawsuit for gross negligence against Comcast and make Comcast start thinking twice about the people they hire who may interact with the public. I’m not saying ex-cons should not be hired anywhere; I’m saying registered sex offenders prolly shouldn’t be hired in a capacity that they have face to face contact with customers in a professional capacity.

@satoru: You have to remember that Comcast didn’t hire this person. They hired a subcontractor to do their field work. It is the job of this subcontractor. And remember there aren’t many actual laws that prohibit the hiring of sex offenders.

Do you know for certain that he was hired by a subcontractor? The article doesn’t say that.

We should also try to not jump to conclusions; he hasn’t been found guilty of the charge (yet).

Wow, late time with the kitten kickers I was saying that you can’t blame Comcast, but in this case I feel Comcast has some share of responsibility. Why would they put a registered sex offender in a position to be in people’s houses. Although, they do always ask you to make sure there’s an adult present, I wonder where that person was.

@heavylee-again: Wow, just wow. Maybe the parents will bring a lawsuit for gross negligence against ComcastVerizon and make Comcast Verizon start thinking twice about the people they hire who may interact with the public. I’m not saying ex-cons should not be hired anywhere; I’m saying registered sex offenders prolly shouldn’t be hired in a capacity that they have face to face contact with customers in a professional capacity.

Here in Arkansas even kids 8 years old can be left home alone. I had to call the 1-800 child abuse hotline number quite a few times last year trying to report my alcoholic neighbor who was leaving her children 8 & 10 home alone, sometimes all night with their 11 year old sister, but sometimes even the 8 year old would be alone for 9 hours at a time after school. I took her into my home alot but couldn’t keep her all the time. The people at the hotline told me that as long as the child didn’t hurt herself there was no law against it and nothing they could do. I even went up twice to report it to the child neglect people at the DHS office but they never did anything either.

Felons and SOs need to be able to get jobs to keep busy and living to where they’re not leeching off the state and using ample amounts of free time trolling where they’re not supposed to be. And I’m not talking about retarded hot zones like schools and day care centers. The minimal legislation on this, the better. Just keep them surrounded by people and away from kids as best as possible. A job should not trump the law, and should just the same not be the basis for not hiring someone. School and day-care related jobs notwithstanding.

What I want to know is, whenever I send out delivery people at my current job, or whenever we sent out technicians at the computer repair place I used to own, we’d always always always send people in twos. Accountability. Where was this guy’s partner? It’s a given that Jefferson will lose his job, but anyone that should’ve been accompanying him and did not put themselves in a position to protect or report should be fired.

@ClayS: Most states have minimum ages for how old a child has to be to be home alone. otherwise it’s child endangerment and Child Protective Services may get involved. I think CA’s is about 12 or 13, but I can’t remember.

It is to bad that this happened but it doesn’t really seem to me that it was Comcast’s fault. The guy was working on a crew that was not entering peoples homes. He left the job site and went to someones home. It is not like a school hiring a registered pedophile (and that sadly happens far too often).

This is Jenni Moyer with Comcast. Please note that we have confirmed this is not a Comcast employee or a contractor as noted in your post. As reported by other media outlets ([www.wtvr.com]), he was a contractor for Double J Communications, which was working for another provider in the Henrico area. Please correct your original post. Thank you.

As others have pointed out this guy was with a contracter for verizon, not comcast. Points for consumerist for not doing any reasearch before posting this bashing comcast when the article they linked didn’t even say anything about them.

Anyway this is in my area(I live in henrico) and saw this on news 6. Sucks but this comes with contractors. You don’t always know who they hire.

@testsicles: Read the article – he was a hired ditch digger, not a residential installer. He’s still a scumbag though, and I doubt “Double J Communications” will hire any more sex offenders to dig ditches.

I don’t see how Verizon could have avoided this, though. And Comcast is 100% blameless.

This girl had it coming. She knew what was going to happen when she let this guy in. Thanks to the media and shitty parents, girls are actively trolling for sex by about 11 or 12 or so. That is reality. It just happens to be illegal to touch them.

@linus: I’m sure that this is exactly what happened, but it’s an explanation, not an excuse. Any company with a field team which enters people’s homes should have some sort of internal screening to weed out convicted sex offenders, thieves, etc. Though, from the stories you see here about telecom field techs, I would think this would leave them with a very small work force.

Consumerist has been publishing a lot of errors these days, particularly when relating to favorite targets (cf. two misleading articles about Comcast today). I know there are pressures to post articles quickly and in volume, but this sort of thing needs to be corrected, as it only undermines the credibility of the site.

This guy is a suck fuck, whcih y’all have already said quite eloquently. But why does news feel the need to say “private area?” That drives me nuts. Genitals, people. Unless you’re directly quoting the girl’s description of what happened, say genitals or vagina or something.

This scumbag was not a residential installer. He’s part of the street crews that have been laying the fiber trunks around here for the last few months…hell, he was probably working on my street two weeks ago.

Two issues here: We’ve got to pressure companies to run a sex offender background check before these creeps are allowed contact with the public. Huge problems exist with all big corp’s from Burger King and MacDonalds staff to gas pumpers, utility company readers, hosital attendants, bus drivers, and many more.

On problems with Comcast: Email the the CEO. His address was provided on this site–many thanks to the person who posted it! I was sooooo frustrated with customer service was lacking that when I searched “CEO Comcast email,” I found this site and the needed contact info in seconds. Within an hour of my email, his staff called me. They gracious, found the problem, fixed it, and comp’ed me my June bill. That’s good service.